Gustave Loiseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter, known for his landscape paintings and Parisian Street scenes. He was a great traveller, painting throughout France but was drawn primarily to the Normandy coast, including the locations Dieppe, Fécamp, and Étretat.
In the spring of 1895, Loiseau moved to Moret-sur-Loing and began painting the hills and rivers of the region. From that time on, Loiseau was to be one of the most sincere interpreters of the French landscape. Unlike his contemporaries the Mediterranean coast held few attractions, as he journeyed through Normandy, Brittany, and the Dordogne in summer, returning to the Île-de-France each winter.
The elemental beauty of this vibrant cityscape is created with several components of Loiseau’s signature style. The blend of foliage and the coursing river shows the predominance of the inhabitants of the French Brittany Coast for structuring their cities around the local waterways. At this coastal harbour entrance to the important port of Fécamp, halfway between Dieppe and Le Havre.
The impasto texture on this canvas is fascinating to explore. Rich with elements both architectural and human, especially the stretched promenade full of walking travellers along the waterway, Loiseau has chosen a nearly impossible to view high perspective over the city to look down on the alternating rooftops and challenge the heights of the swirling, ethereal clouds.
